THE SPORT OF FLY FISHING - Readers Cast (Michael Hanvey) - December 14, 2009

THE SPORT OF FLY FISHING

The sport of fly-fishing can do little to gain one's physique. I've yet to see one gain muscle from throwing a fly at the end of a fly rod. If he or she did, they were doing it wrong. No... This is the sport for me. I'm good for walking lazily through foggy mornings to rambling rivers and standing in the water while the fog lifts and mists fall. Today it took thirty minutes to reach the Brazos from where I parked my truck (fifteen minutes away), but while I stood and put on my fly, I listened to the small birds rustling in the brush fussing at me for invading their territory. A short time later, a Tufted Titmouse gave me a real talking to, and I smiled at the wonder of it all.

In the biathlon, competitors ski cross-country (one of the most cardio-vascularly demanding sports in the world) to a series of targets, stop, unsling their rifles, and fire a series of shots into a target configuration. Then they're off to do it again. Firing a small-bore rifle at tiny targets in extreme cold after skiing many kilometers cross-country in a race where seconds count is no small task! One must quickly calm their pounding heart and heaving lungs in order to steady the rifle with open sights for their shots. It is a serious task of mind over matter. Then, they jump up and resume the physically demanding skiing task. Getting moving to racing speed is the hardest part of cross-country skiing.

It's not the same, but there is a loose parallel to be drawn to the sport of fly fishing for many people. For example, I often hike and climb as much as 10 miles into the backcountry wilderness of New Mexico and Colorado to fish remote streams for wild trout and smallmouth bass. A 10 mile hike from 6000 to 10000'...let alone the ones from 8000 to 12000'+...are pretty serious exercise. And you're going to do it twice in one or two days: up and down again. The short ones are usually more than 2 miles each way. Roads tend to be rare out here.

Sometimes, to get to the real honey holes, climbing gear becomes necessary unless you're a world-class free climber daredevil. This past summer, I free climbed about 40' up the side of a cliff with my pack to get into a small cave to spend the night during a really bad thunderstorm that wasn't in the forecast while fishing in the Gila Wilderness. (studded wading boots are good for more than just wading) The next morning, I caught several trophy smallies that few people even know exist in that part of the country...and even fewer are willing to get to.

Sometimes I kayak into spots that require me to navigate Class III rapids, or across a couple miles of saltwater and back.

Sport? Yeah, fly fishing is a sport. Just ask anyone who has ever hooked a decent tarpon on a fly rod or rapelled into a canyon to fish for salmon below a waterfall they couldn't jump.

As for building muscles, well maybe not body-builder type muscles. But I do happen to know a Green Beret who lost a portion of his hand including his trigger finger in an ammunition explosion in Afghanistan a couple of years ago who used fly fishing and fly tying to retrain his hand, rebuilding strength and coordination after surgery, and is now back in Afghanistan returned to full duty status with US Army Special Forces. Here's a very recent pic, but I can't give you his name...

http://adaptiveflyfishing.com/images...n%20ruins.jpeg

And here's a pic from a trip I helped send him on to El Pescador to cap off his rehab...

http://www.flyrodreel.com/files/imag...ish.medium.jpg

I really enjoyed your article, it reminded me of a one-panel I once read.

I fine one-panel cartoons to be very special form of humor and truth, i there is just the one panel to show something happening, and a statement under the panel with dialog that makes you want to laugh until you bust your gut!

Panel: Shows a man laying on a Psychiatrist Couch, with the Psychiatrist sitting in a chair with note book and pen at the ready, talking to the patient!

Statement underneath Panel: "You have two choices for treatment, you can do four years of weekly session here, or I can teach you how to fly fish! Both take the same amount of time, and cost is the same!